Tong Zhang

Education

• PhD, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China, 2001
• MPhil, Nanjing University, China, 1993
• BSc, Nanjing University, China, 1990

Research Areas

Professor Tong ZHANG’s group is mainly engaged in environmental microbiology and bioinformatics research, focusing on new pollutants and their ecological and environmental health through multidisciplinary approaches. The main research fields include:

• Assess antibiotic resistome flows from pollution hotspots to environments and explore the control strategies
• Multi-omics analysis of environmental microbial composition, function and potential applications (e.g., Wastewater biological treatment, Antibiotic degradation and Anaerobic digestion)
• Wastewater-based Epidemiology and environmental health

Application of third-generation sequencing technology and bioinformatics in the field of environmental molecular ecology (e.g., microbial community and Genome mining).

Highlights

Professor Tong ZHANG’s research group mainly uses cutting-edge high throughput multi-omics sequencing technologies (e.g., Third generation Nanopore sequencing, metagenomics, metatranscriptomics, and proteomics), combined with bioinformatics and molecular techniques to study the environmental microbiome, which provides a new perspective for analyzing the ecological functions of microorganisms, promoting the application of biological treatment technology in sewage treatment, and establishing health risk management and control of environmental pollutions.

Professor Tong Zhang led the Environmental Microbiome Engineering and Biotechnology Lab, in collaboration with Hong Kong Environment Bureau, Food and Health Bureau, Environmental Protection Department and Drainage Services Department to develop detection methods for COVID-19 in sewage and carried out "Wastewater-Based Epidemiology of COVID-19" studies for the fight against COVID-19 at Hong Kong.

Awards

2021 HKU
HKU Innovator Award

2020 HKU
Outstanding Research Award

2017 HKU
Outstanding Research Student Supervisor Award of HKU

2016 China's State Council
Second-Class State Natural Science Award

2015 China's Ministry of Education (MOE)
First-Class Award in Natural Science

Selected Publications

• Che Y, Yang Y, Xu XQ, Břinda K, Polz MF, Hanage WP, Zhang T*. Conjugative plasmids interact with insertion sequences to shape the horizontal transfer of antimicrobial resistance genes. PNAS. 2021, 118, e2008731118.
• Li LG, Xia Y, Zhang T*. Co-occurrence of antibiotic and metal resistance genes revealed in complete genome collection. ISME. 2017, 11, 651-662.
• Li B, Yang Y, Ma LP, Ju tF, Guo F, Tiedje JM, Zhang T*. Metagenomic and network analysis reveal wide distribution and co-occurrence of environmental antibiotic resistance genes. ISME. 2015, 9, 2490-2502.
• Ju F, Zhang T*. Bacterial assembly and temporal dynamics in activated sludge of a full-scale municipal wastewater treatment plant. ISME. 2015, 9, 683-695.
• Zhang T*, Shao MF, Ye L. 454 Pyrosequencing reveals bacterial diversity of activated sludge from 14 sewage treatment plants, ISME. 2012, 6, 1137-1147.